I used to wonder why Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded. I never knew the whole story and to me she was always a victim, never a criminal. Now I know better. Mary ascended to the throne of Scotland in 1549 when she was 6 days old. She was educated in the courts of France and returned to resume her place as monarch at the age of 17, already a widow. In 1565 she married her English cousin in order to reinforce her claim to the English throne after Elizabeth's death. But over the next couple of years she became a focal point in several plots to overthrow Elizabeth, and Elizabeth was forced to put her under house arrest, even though she counted her a friend. In 1586 a major plot to kill Elizabeth was uncovered and Mary was found complicit and beheaded on February 8, 1587, thanks to the discovery of a coded letter she sent to her co-conspirator Anthony Babington. Codes have been used at least as far back as Julius Caesar, who used a simple alphabetic code. Mary's code was the type called "frequency analysis." It depends upon the number of times certain letters are used in the language. In English, E is the most common letter, T the second most, and A the third, etc. By looking at the message, the cryptologist can crack the code when he sees how many times certain symbols are used. They tell me it's simple math. Well, math maybe, but not necessarily simple to me. On the other hand… Before he was a year old, Silas started talking. Sometimes I knew what he was saying and sometimes I didn’t. For some reason he said, “Bear,” over and over and over. He and another toddler at church carried on quite a conversation across the aisle with just that one word. But there was no question at all what he meant when he looked across the room, spied Brooke, then smiled, held out both arms and said, “Mamamamamamama,” as he toddled across the floor. No, he was not saying, “Mama.” He was saying, “There is the most important person in the world.” Then he looked at Nathan, pointed to the ceiling and said, “Up!” No, that didn’t mean, “Pick me up.” It meant, “Throw me up in the air as high as you can,” something he loved for his daddy to do. Mothers can decode better than anyone. When Lucas was eleven months old, he had already been walking five or six weeks. He often padded to the refrigerator, hung on to the door, and said, “Dee.” That meant, “I want a drink, please.” Nathan, at thirteen months, would hold out his biscuit half and say, “Buuuuh.” (Pronounce that like the word “burr” but without the “r,” and draw the “u” out as long as possible.) That meant, “Please put more butter on my biscuit so I can lick it off again.” Needless to say, he only got a little dab of butter at a time. Marriages have special codes too. “Are you wearing that?” could mean a lot of different things, depending upon the marriage. In some it means, “I don’t like that outfit.” In ours it means, “Oh, so I guess I can’t wear my blue jeans, huh?” Relationships may be about communication, but that does not mean they are about hearing; they are about knowing what the words you hear mean. Sometimes people decide they mean what they want them to mean instead of what they really do mean, and that can lead to all sorts of problems. Jesus is a specialist in decoding our words. “He who searches the reins and the hearts” (Rev 2:23) can figure it out, no matter how awkwardly we phrase things. We don’t have to worry about being eloquent in our prayers, about saying something that might be misunderstood or taken the wrong way. People may do that, but our Lord never will. He partook of humanity so he would understand the stresses we undergo and the turmoil they create in our minds. He knows that things sometimes come out wrong, not because we are selfish or mean, but because we are anxious and distressed. Isn’t that when we find ourselves talking to Him the most? Make a relationship with Him that will calm your worries. Know that He is listening to your heart, not the inept words you sometimes utter. Don’t worry about eloquence, just talk. Let your prayers be a comfort to you today, not another source of worry. That’s how a real relationship works.

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God who justifies, who is he who condemns? It is Christ Jesus who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us…For there is one God, one mediator between God and man, himself man, Christ Jesus, Rom 8:33,34; 1 Tim 2:5.

Getting old is the pits or, as is popular to say among my friends, it isn’t for wimps.

I remember when I used to run 30 miles a week and exercise another 5 hours besides. I lifted light weights and did aerobics and the standard floor exercises for abs and glutes and those floppy chicken wings on the back of your arms—triceps, I think they’re called. I didn’t like the notion of waving hello to the people in front of me and having those things wave goodbye to the people behind me at the same time.

Now, due to doctor’s orders, I have to limit how much I pick up, how long I bend over, and how much and how strenuous the activity I participate in. Good-bye slim, svelte body (as much as it ever could be with my genes), and hello floppy chicken wings. Now I can only do a little and boy, does it show—and hurt!

I was doing a little step work the other day (very little) when a knife-sharp stab stopped me in my tracks. Yeow! What was that? So I stepped up again and found out immediately—it was something deep inside my knee. I stopped and thought.

In all that exercising over the years I have learned at least a little bit about it. For example, if you change the angle of your body, suddenly you feel the work in a different muscle, sometimes on a completely different part of your body. When I took that step up, I was using nothing but my knee, a very fragile joint—how many professional athletes have had their careers cut short with a knee injury? Lifting that much weight over and over and over, even for just the ten minutes I allowed it, was too much for that little joint to bear alone.

So I focused on changing the working muscle. All it took was putting the entire foot on the step instead of just my toes, and pushing up from my heel on each repetition. Suddenly, the large muscle mass from my legs and up through the small of my back was doing all the work (especially that extra large muscle), and my knee scarcely hurt at all. Ha! I finished my allotment of sweating for the day with no pain, and only a mild ache where it really needed to be aching in the first place.

That’s exactly what happens to us when we try to bear our burdens alone. All we are is a fragile little knee joint, when what we need is a huge mass of muscle. Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you, David said in Psa 55:22. Do you think that strong warrior didn’t need help at times? But David was greatly distressed…[and he] strengthened himself in the Lord his God, 1 Sam 30:6. David was not too macho to know when he needed help and where to get it.

Too many times we try to gain strength from everything but God--money, portfolios, annuities, doctors, self-help programs, counseling, networking, anything as long as we don’t have to confess a reliance on God. It isn’t weak to depend upon your Almighty Creator—it’s wisdom and good common sense. The Lord is my helper, I will not fear; what can man do to me? asked the Hebrew writer in 13:6. Indeed, not only is what man can do to you nothing compared to the Lord’s power, what he can do for you is even less.

When life starts stabbing you in the heart with pain, anxiety, and distress shift your focus. Remember who best can bear the weight of sin and woes, and let Him make that burden easy enough for you to handle. I still had to use my knees that day, but they certainly felt a lot better than they did before, and even better the next morning. By yourself, you will do nothing but ruin your career (Eph 4:1) with a knee injury, but you and the Lord can handle anything.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:6-7

What do you do when someone you love is in the middle of a crisis? Prayer is probably the first thing that comes to mind, but after considering this awhile, I realize that a few other things must come before that.

First we need to get our lives in order. The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous avails much, we are told in James 5:16. If you really care about the ones you are praying for, nothing will keep you from making sure you live a righteous life. None of us can be righteous by being perfect, but we can all be made righteous by forgiveness. Usually the only thing standing in the way of that is pride, and pride will form a ceiling past which your prayers cannot travel. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear, David wrote in Psa 66:18. Whatever needs fixing in your life, first get on your knees and fix yourself before you even try to pray for anyone else.

That one was obvious. This one not so much. God will never hear the prayers of a grudge-holder. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift,Matt 5:23-24. Adam Clarke says, “A religion, the very essence of which is love, cannot suffer at its altars a heart that is revengeful and uncharitable, or which does not use its utmost endeavors to revive love in the heart of another.”

Do you know the easiest way to fix this problem? Stop wearing your feelings on your coatsleeves. Stop being so easily offended and insulted. Stop seeing the worst in everything anyone says or does toward you. Love “does not keep account of evil,” Paul says in 1 Cor 13:5. “Love covers a multitude of sins,” Peter reminds us in 1 Pet 4:8. If we weren’t so quick to make something out of every little thing that comes along, maybe more of our prayers would be heard. “First be reconciled,” Jesus said. There is a definite order to these things.

And the last thing I thought of? I need to stop distracting those who are praying about this huge crisis with my own petty problems. I know that it is impossible to overwhelm God—He can handle as many problems as we feel compelled to send his way. But his people can be overwhelmed. They can be distracted. Feeling emotionally swamped can paralyze you, and keep you from the service that others desperately need. The shepherds shouldn’t have to take time putting band-aids on boo-boos when a couple of other sheep need CPR.

So, just for now, while the crisis looms, you and God handle your problems, and God and I will handle mine. God and even just one of his children are more than a match for any one or any thing. When any crisis is at hand--I must be aware of priorities, and do my best not to cause other problems. “Act like a man!” Paul told the Corinthians. “Man up!” is the current way of putting it, or just, “Grow up!” During a crisis the last thing the people of God need is someone raising a fuss or whining for attention.

I have a friend whom I have known since before I was even old enough to know her. She needs the prayers and the undivided attention of the saints right now. I do not want to be the one who fails her.

Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying, "Now, O LORD, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: "Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you…2 Kings 20:2-5.

Three year old Silas has learned to pray, and often sits at the table, eagerly clasping his little hands together, looking back and forth at his parents, hoping they will ask him to say the blessing.

“Do you want to say the prayer?” his daddy asks, as if it weren’t obvious, and he gets a big nod and off we go. It’s never about the meal. To him it’s about talking to God and saying thank you for something, for anything, for whatever happens to be on his mind.

“Hey God!” Read that the way an excited child would greet his grandparents, not the way a New Yorker would yell, “Hey Mac!”

“Thank you for sisters,” although he has none, but one of his little friends does, so he wants to mention it.

“Thank you for blue, and red, and yellow,” the colors of the containers he puts his blocks in. He doesn’t complain about having to pick up his toys. He thanks God for something to put them in, and that’s the one that really made me think.

I wonder how many of our complaints could be expressed as thanks with just a little thought. Dealing with rush hour traffic? Thank God you have a car to drive through it in. Complaining about the stack of ironing? Thank God you have that many clothes to wear. Griping a little about picking up your husband’s shoes? Thank God he is alive and well enough to leave them in the middle of the floor.

I thought about this again yesterday when I was blowing off the carport. We didn’t have one for years, and sometimes I think that all it did for me was give me something else to keep clean. But last week when one of our usual summer gully washers came through, I could unload the groceries and stay dry.

Then I came in and heaved a sigh at the extra dirty floor. That happened because we saved enough money to buy a new vanity for the bathroom and the plumber tracked in sand going in and out.

Stop and think today about the things you complain about. How many are caused by blessings you could have thanked God for instead? How many extra chores do you have because God has provided you a home and a family? I never had to wash diapers until I had babies. Do you think for one minute I would have given them back?

If ever anyone had something to grumble about, it was Daniel when the other two presidents and the 120 satraps tricked the king into making the law against praying to anyone other than him. How did he react instead? And when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house (now his windows were open in his chamber toward Jerusalem) and he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. Daniel 6:10. Surely if Daniel could say thank you at a time like that, we can in this relatively easy time in history.

God is patient with us as we daily grumble our way through a life He has blessed in thousands of ways. You have to go to work? These days especially, be grateful for a job. Gas prices too high? You’re still buying it, aren’t you?

Maybe we should be a little more like a three year old. “Hey God! (I’m so excited to talk to you!) Thank you for all you have done for me, for the things you have given me that I don’t deserve and forget to be grateful for. For all those extra chores, because they mean you have blessed me beyond measure. For all my pet peeves, because it means I am able to be up and around and go to those places where they happen. For the fact that I have to work so hard to lose weight, because it means I have plenty to eat. For people who get on my nerves, because it means I have friends and family and neighbors and brothers and sisters in Christ—I am not alone.”

Today look at everything you gripe about and find the blessing. You will be amazed--and probably a little ashamed. And maybe those gripes will go away, for at least a little awhile.

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you,1 Thes 5:18.

I did a little research one day and discovered that the Liberty Bell, the bell that rang on July 4, 1776 when this country declared its independence from England, received its celebrated crack on July 8, 1835, while tolling the death of Chief Justice John Marshall. Then I did a little more research and found nine more stories about what caused the crack, and even evidence that this was not the first one. I do have a small model of that bell among my dinner bell collection and there is the crack for all to see. It’s probably more famous for that crack than it is for celebrating freedom.

I thought then of another “crack,” one far more important. And Jesus cried again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom…Matt 27:50-51. The veil in the Temple that separated the holy place from the most holy place also separated men from God. Only one man could go through that veil and that only once a year, the high priest, Lev 16. God “dwelt” behind that veil and man was not allowed access under penalty of death.

Rather than nine different stories about how the veil of the Temple tore, only one is recorded. The fact that it tore “from top to bottom” means someone had to be in the anteroom to see it, perhaps several “someones,” and that would have been the regular priests going about their daily duties. Imagine their feelings as the accompanying earthquake began, and they watched an unseen hand rip that sacred curtain. Imagine their terror as they wondered if they would die now that it hung open and they could see inside. I think it is likely they were the very ones who later accepted the new teaching. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Act 6:7. It would have taken something monumental for those men to give up their livelihoods, their heritage, and their sacred privilege as priests of Jehovah.

We all know that the rip in that veil symbolized the new access we now have to God. Since we then have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God…let us draw near with boldness to the throne of grace…Heb 4:12,14. This access was not given only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles, as prophesied in Isa 25:6,7. “The veil that is over all nations” is “swallowed up.”

The Liberty Bell bears this inscription: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land,” Lev 25:10. We have a far more important liberty, the right to approach God when we need him, the privilege to call him Father and enjoy his care and protection and company! Adam lost that privilege a long time ago, and man suffered for it for thousands of years. Don’t take it for granted now.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.Heb 10:19-22

One of the prettiest views of our property is coming down the shady lane late in the afternoon as the western sun sets behind the tall pines. The live oaks spread their arms over the house and carport and most of the yard, dripping with Spanish moss and providing an even deeper shade over the lush green grass. It isn’t fancy by any means. It isn’t the grandeur of mountains and valleys that dwarf the human spirit. It isn’t the sculptured and manicured lawn of a great mansion. But it’s homey and comfortable and inviting. All that moss is part of the charm. We’ve had people try to tell us to remove it. “It’s a parasite,” they tell us, a common misconception. Actually, it’s a bromeliad, related to the pineapple. According to the Sarasota County Forestry Division, Spanish moss, the beard of ancient live oaks, does not jeopardize the trees. It does not steal nutrients. It is an air plant that prefers to perch on horizontal limbs like those of live oaks, which provide more access to sunlight and water than vertical limbs. It processes its food from the rainwater that runs off the leaves and limbs of the trees. Nothing is stolen from the tree. Just look around. Moss even hangs from power lines and fences, and it seems to prefer dead trees to live ones. So much for the myth that it’s a parasite. However, the moss can become so thick that it shades the leaves of the trees from the sunshine, the thing necessary for photosynthesis. During the rainy season, thick moss can become so heavy that it breaks branches. I think Spanish moss must be a little like worry. Let’s dismiss the notion that any worry at all is a sin. Paul talks about “the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches,” 2 Cor 11:28. He may not use the word “worry,” but that is exactly what he is talking about—anxiety, care, concern, the “daily pressure.” Sometimes that emotion is legitimate and we become petty when we start forbidding certain words while accepting the feelings as long as we call it something else. Yet worldly care and worry can rob us of our spirituality and our usefulness to God. It can make us “unfruitful,” Mark 4:19. It can “entangle” us in worldly pursuits, 2 Tim 2:4. It can tell tales about our hearts with misplaced priorities, Luke 12:22,23, doubt, Luke 12:29, and lack of faith, Matt 6:30. All of that can choke the word right out of us and when trials come, instead of trusting a God who loves us and provides our needs, we may break from the stress. If you have trouble with worry, camp awhile in Matthew 6. Don’t you understand, Jesus asks, that life is more than food and clothing, v 25? Don’t you know that God loves you even more than he loves the birds and the flowers, vv 26,30? Are you so arrogant that you think your worry will fix anything, v 27? Don’t you have more faith than the heathens, vv 30,32? Jesus always has a way of laying it on the line, doesn’t he? While there may be legitimate concerns, things we pray about even in agony as Jesus did in Gethsemane, and there may be good things that occupy our minds, like our care for the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church and the spiritual progress of our children, don’t let the trivial things, the things of this life that you can’t do anything about anyway, become such a heavy burden that you break under its weight. Rid yourself of the moss that robs you of the Light. “Let not your hearts be troubled,” Jesus said, John 14:27. He came to bring us peace instead.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27

On June 20, 1963, the world suddenly realized what a powder keg it had made of itself and established a hot line. This bilateral agreement created a direct link between the heads of state of the United States and the Soviet Union specifically to prevent a nuclear war triggered by accident, miscalculation, or surprise attack.

The hot line consisted of 1) two terminal points with teletype equipment; 2) a full time duplex wire telegraph circuit; and 3) a full time duplex radiotelegraph circuit. The redundancy provided backup in case one communication method, or even two, did not work in the heat of the crisis. The two sides also agreed that the system would not be used for anything less than an emergency. Any sort of regular use would degrade its effectiveness. If it was “in case of emergency only,” when it rang, someone would answer. No one on the other end would shrug and say, “It’s probably nothing.”

All this made me think of the hot line we have with God, a link made possible by Christ, who tore down the veil separating us from God. It also made me grateful for the differences.

Our hot line is not for emergencies only. Our regular use of it does not make it less effective. If anything, it makes it more effective. We are more likely to use it, and God is more likely to listen to someone with whom He has a close relationship. I can find instances in the Old Testament where God deliberately ignored the prayers of those who only called “in case of emergency,” Zech 7:13 among them. And it is come to pass that, as [my prophet] cried and they would not hear, so they shall cry and I will not hear, said Jehovah of hosts. God knows when our repentance is real and when it is simply a matter of fearing the consequences of our sin.

Our hot line does not need any back up measures. It will always work. The line is never busy. There is always someone there, not just an answering machine or an automated menu. God loves His children and wants us to talk with Him. He wants us to realize how much we depend upon Him, and ask for whatever we need, even whatever we want whether we really need it or not. And He wants us to trust Him enough to ask over and over if we don’t receive the desired results immediately. How we use our hot line tells tales about the state of our faith.

That “red telephone,” as it has often been depicted in the movies, has indeed been used at least twice that I could find record of, twice in about 20 years if I remember correctly. How many times have you used yours in just the last 20 days?

As for me I will call upon God and Jehovah will save me. Evening and morning and at noonday will I complain and moan; and he will hear my voice, Psalm 55:16,17.

In the past few years I have found myself fighting sleepless nights on more than one occasion. Keith always tells me that when that happens to him, he sings hymns in his mind until he falls back asleep. I have yet to find a better thing to do, unless it is praying, but often they are the same. How many songs can you find in your hymnals that are nothing more than prayers set to music? I have a feeling that most of David’s psalms follow that same pattern.

I recently found a phrase in the middle of a scripture that made me smile, even though the context didn’t. Still, I think pulling that phrase out of its context is not wresting the scriptures in this case. “God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,” Job 35:10. I wonder how many times those hymns popped into our heads because a loving God sent them our way to help calm us and reassure us.

The righteous sing for joy on their beds,Psalm 149:5. After I found that verse, I began to wonder why “bed” was particularly mentioned, just as “night” was in Job.

Perhaps it is a metaphoric allusion. We take to our beds when we are seriously ill. I can get up and do things when I have a cold, but if I am really sick, I am in bed. People who are nearing death are usually in bed, in fact, we call it the “death bed.” In times of worry, when we try to sleep, we find ourselves tossing and turning in bed, just as I have done so often recently. Why would we be inclined to sing at those times?

Isn’t it obvious? If we are God’s children, we have hope, we have a foundation of joy in our lives that keeps us grounded, and that joy often shows itself in song. Even in prison, having been beaten and wondering what the morning would bring, Paul and Silas sang hymns of praise “at midnight,” Acts 16:25. They weren’t in a comfortable bed, but the “nighttime” of trouble was upon them. Even from childhood, aren’t we all just a little afraid of the dark?

Do not think it strange that songs often come to us during these times. Our God does not leave us desolate. He gives us songs in the “night,” songs of comfort, songs of hope, songs of praise for his grace and love, songs of encouragement, songs of edification and even chastisement. Those songs would not come to your mind without a God who cared enough not only to send his Son, but to send you songs in the times you need them most, in the night time of sorrow and fear and pain.

Often the grace of God comes in a song that keeps going round and round in your mind. It’s up to you to sing it.

By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. Psa 42:8

I remember once when the boys came asking for something. I don’t remember what it was, I just remember that the way they asked made it obvious they did not expect to receive a positive response from me. It probably cost money, which was always in short supply in those years. I vaguely remember that their father and I had already discussed this thing, and had decided it was worth it, that we would just sacrifice in another area. So I thoroughly enjoyed answering in an offhanded way, “Sure.”

Their hanging heads snapped back, their eyes widened, and their jaws dropped. It was a moment before they could utter, “Reeeeeeally?” Being able to give them what they wanted so much was a wonderful feeling. Although I am certain that most children doubt this, most parents want to give their children everything their hearts desire. They just have enough sense not to.

Sometimes I think we approach God in exactly the same way my boys came to me that day. We have already decided what God will and won’t do. Or maybe it’s that we have decided what God can and cannot do—a far more serious crime. When we know the doctors have said the illness is terminal, for some reason we don’t think we can ask God to heal. God can do whatever he wants to do, regardless of what the doctors say. Don’t we believe that?

Put yourself in the place of those Christians in Acts 12. They were all in danger. Herod had put Peter and James in prison, and had already killed James. When he saw the public opinion polls swing in his direction, he planned to kill Peter too. Yet those Christians risked life and limb to gather at Mary’s house and pray for him. If it were us, I am afraid we would have prayed that his death be swift so he wouldn’t suffer. We would have already given up on his life being spared.

After my first surgeries, the doctor told me it was the first time anyone had performed that operation on a nanophthalmic eye without losing the eye. I am glad he didn’t tell me that beforehand. It isn’t just the extra fear I would have felt. I am afraid it would have changed my prayers because I, too, grew up with the idea that you must not ask God for the impossible.

Mark records Jesus saying, Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours, 11:24. Did you catch that? “Believe that you have received it.” Your faith should be such that you know he has already said yes—asking for it is simply a formality.

Jesus died so we could boldly come before the throne of God (Heb 4:16). Too many times we come before God with a hangdog expression, a forlorn hope that he will have any time to spare for us and that our requests will be too petty to catch his attention. We remind him how many outs he has, we lower our expectations to something that won’t be too hard for him, and we always add a “Thy will be done,” not because of our humility and acceptance of his will, but because, like my boys that day, we really don’t expect to get a yes and our weak faith needs a prop. Just exactly how much more insulting do we think we can be to our Divine Creator?

When you pray today, pray “nothing doubting” (James 1:6), and remember that with God “all things are possible” (Matt 19:26). Think about the gift he has already given you—his Son. Why in the world do we think he would withhold anything else?

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him,1 John 5:14,15.

Who hasn’t stood in a grocery aisle and heard a child demand that her mother buy something? Not even asks with a polite please, but demands and follows up by a scream that echoes through the store when the mother says in an apologetic and almost fearful tone, “Not today, honey”. Us old-timers have things we would love to say that would probably get us in trouble with everyone, things like, “Keep that up and I’ll give you something to scream about.” The problem is, that laxness in training has brought us a whole generation that makes demands of God too, demands just as insufferable and spoiled, like “How can God let me suffer like this?”

I have a friend, a sister in Christ who has her own medical problems—not the kind that could steal your vision, like mine, but the kind that could steal your life. She is a bit older than I so the aches and pains and increasing exhaustion of old age plague her as well, but here is her attitude:

“I pray to God for just a measure of health. I don’t expect to be what I used to be. We all get old, that’s just part of life. I just want enough energy to do what I need to do to take care of others and help them.”

We live in a world of increasing self-absorption, where “Poor little me” is plastered all over Facebook and peppers every conversation. Instead of being grateful children, we have become demanding children who think God owes us for our faith. “I’ve been so good and done so much. Why is this happening to me?”

Thanks to the words of my friend, this is now my prayer: Lord, just give me enough vision, for long enough, to do what I need to do to help others. And someday soon, it will likely be, give me enough faith to keep helping others despite my lack of vision.

If you are having a rough time, remember why you are here, remember whom you are following, and if you can’t find a good example among your peers, use this beautiful moment courtesy of my beautiful friend, a true disciple of the Suffering Servant and faithful daughter of God.

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. (John 13:14-15)

AuthorDene Ward has taught the Bible for more than forty years, spoken at women’s retreats and lectureships, and has written both devotional books and class materials. She lives in Lake Butler, Florida, with her husband Keith.